Bảo Đại 保大
Emperor of Vietnam
Bảo Đại
Emperor of Vietnam
Reign	8 January 1926 – 25 August 1945 (&1000000000000001900000019 years, &10000000000000229000000229 days)
Predecessor	Khải Định
Heir-apparent	Bảo Long
Chief of State
Reign	13 June 1949 – 30 April 1955
Spouse	Nam Phương Phu Ánh Hoang Bùi Mộng Điệp Monique Vĩnh Thụy
Full name
Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy 阮福永瑞
Era dates
Khải Ðịnh 保大 (1926–1945)
House	Nguyen dynasty
Father	Khải Định
Mother	Hoang Thi Cuc
Born	(1913-10-22)22 October 1913 Huế, French Indochina
Died	30 July 1997(1997-07-30) (aged 83) Paris, France
Burial	Passy Cemetery

Bảo Đại (lit. "keeper of greatness", 22 October 1913 – 30 July 1997), born Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy (阮福永瑞), was the 13th and last emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, which is the last dynasty of Vietnam. From 1926 to 1945, he was king of Annam under French ‘protection’. During this period, Annam was a protectorate within French Indochina, covering the central two-thirds of the present-day Vietnam. Bảo Đại ascended the throne in 1932. The Japanese ousted the French in March 1945 and then ruled through Bảo Đại. At this time, he renamed his country “Vietnam”. He abdicated in August 1945 when Japan surrendered. He was the chief of state of the State of Vietnam (South Vietnam) from 1949 until 1955. Bảo Đại was criticized for being too closely associated with France and spending much of his time outside of Vietnam. Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm ousted him in a fraudulent referendum vote in 1955.

Early life[link]

Bảo Đại was born Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy in the Palace of Doan-Trang-Vien, part of the compound of the Purple Forbidden City in Huế, the capital of Vietnam. He later was given the name Nguyễn Vĩnh Thụy. His father was King Khải Định of Annam. His mother was the king's second wife, Tu Cung, who was renamed Doan Huy upon her 1913 marriage. She held various titles over the years that indicated her advancing rank as a favored consort until she eventually became Empress Dowager in 1933, with style of Her Imperial Majesty added in 1945. Vietnam had been ruled from Huế by the Nguyễn Dynasty since 1802. The French government, which took control of the region in the late 19th century, split Vietnam into three areas: the protectorates of Annam and Tonkin and the colony of Cochinchina. The Nguyễn Dynasty was given nominal rule of Annam.^{[citation needed]}

At the age of nine, Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy was sent to France to be educated at the Lycée Condorcet and, later, the Paris Institute of Political Studies. In 1926 he was made the king after his father's death and took the name Bảo Đại ("Protector of Grandeur" or "Keeper of Greatness"). He did not ascend to the throne given his age and returned to France to continue his studies.^{[citation needed]}

Marriages[link]

On 20 March 1934, aged 20, at the imperial city of Huế, Bảo Đại married Marie-Thérèse Nguyễn Hữu Thị Lan (died 15 September 1963, Chabrignac, France), a commoner from a wealthy Vietnamese Roman Catholic family. She was renamed as Nam Phương (Southern Scent). The couple had five children: Crown Prince Bảo Long (born 4 January 1936), Princess Phuong Mai (born 1 August 1937), Princess Phuong Lien (born 3 November 1938), Princess Phuong Dung (born 5 February 1942), and Prince Bảo Thắng (born 9 December 1943). She was granted the title of Empress in 1945.

Bảo Đại and his followers on accession

Bảo Đại had four other wives, three of whom he wed during his marriage to Nam Phương:

• Phu Ánh, a cousin, whom he married c. 1935, and by whom he had one daughter, Princess Claire Phương Tao
• Hoang, a Chinese woman, whom he married in 1946
• Bùi Mộng Điệp, whom he married in 1955 and by whom he had two children, Princess Phương Minh (born 1949) and Prince Bảo An (born 1953)
• Monique Baudot, a French citizen whom he married in 1972, and who was styled "Imperial Princess" and renamed Monique Vĩnh Thụy. She was known as Empress Thai Phương after her husband's death in 1997.

One of his concubines was a dancer from Hanoi, Lý Lệ Hà

Independence and abdication[link]

In 1940, during the second World War, coinciding with their ally Germany's invasion of France, the Japanese invaded French Indochina. While they did not eject the French colonial administration, the occupation authorities directed policy from behind the scenes in a parallel of Vichy France.

The Japanese promised not to interfere with the court at Huế, but in 1945, after ousting the French, coerced Bảo Đại into declaring Vietnamese independence from France as a member of Japan's "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere"; the country then became the Empire of Vietnam. The Japanese had a Vietnamese pretender, Prince Cường Để, waiting to take power in case the new emperor's "elimination" was required. Japan surrendered to the Allies in August 1945, and the Vietminh under the leadership of Hồ Chí Minh aimed to take power in a free Vietnam. Due to his recent Japanese associations, Hồ was able to persuade Bảo Đại to abdicate on 25 August 1945, handing power over to the Việt Minh — an event which greatly enhanced Hồ's legitimacy in the eyes of the Vietnamese people. Bảo Đại was appointed "supreme advisor" to Hồ's Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi, which asserted its independence on 2 September 1945, but was ousted by the French in November 1946.

As Vietnam descended into armed conflict — rival factions clashed with each other and also with the remaining French — Bảo Đại left Vietnam after a year in his "advisory" role, living in both Hong Kong and China. The French persuaded him to return in 1949 to serve as "head of state" (quốc trưởng), not as "emperor" (Hoàng Đế). He soon returned to France, however, and showed little interest in the affairs of his own country when his own personal interests were not directly involved.

The communist victory in China in 1949 led to a revival of the fortunes of the Việt Minh. The United States extended diplomatic recognition to Bảo Đại's government in March 1950 soon after communist nations recognized Hồ's government. The outbreak of the Korean War in June led to U.S. military aid and active support of the French war effort in Indochina, now seen as anti-communist rather than colonialist.

But the war between the French colonial forces and the Việt Minh continued, ending in 1954 shortly after a major victory for the Việt Minh at Điện Biên Phủ. The 1954 peace deal between the French and the Việt Minh, known as the Geneva Accords, involved a Chinese-inspired, supposedly temporary partition of the country into "Northern" and "Southern" Vietnamese administrations. Bảo Đại moved to Paris, but remained "Head of State" of South Vietnam, appointing Ngô Đình Diệm as his prime minister.^[1]

In 1955, Diệm called for a referendum to remove Bảo Đại and establish a republic with Diệm as president. The referendum was widely regarded as fraudulent, showing some 98% in favor of a republic. Bảo Đại abdicated once again and remained in exile in France until his death.^{[citation needed]}

Life in exile[link]

Bảo Đại's burial place in the Cimetière de Passy, Paris

In 1972, Bảo Đại issued a public statement from exile, appealing to the Vietnamese people for national reconciliation, stating, "The time has come to put an end to the fratricidal war and to recover at last peace and accord". At times, Bảo Đại maintained residence in southern France, and in particular, in Monaco, where he sailed often on his private yacht, one of the largest in Monte Carlo harbor. He still reportedly held great influence among local political figures in the Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên provinces of Huế. The Communist government of North Vietnam sent representatives to France hoping that Bảo Đại would become a member of a coalition government which might reunite Vietnam, in the hope of attracting his supporters in the regions wherein he still held influence.^{[citation needed]}

As a result of these meetings, Bảo Đại publicly spoke out against the presence of American troops on the territory of South Vietnam, and he also criticized President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu's regime in South Vietnam. He called for all political factions to create a free, neutral, peace-loving government which would resolve the tense situation that had taken form in the country. In 1982, Bảo Đại, his wife, Vĩnh Thụy, and other members of the former imperial family of Vietnam visited the United States. His agenda was to oversee and bless Buddhist and Caodaiist religious ceremonies, in the Californian and Texan Vietnamese-American communities. While in the United States, Bảo Đại gauged Vietnamese-American opinion, hoping to find a route towards national reconciliation.^{[citation needed]}

Death[link]

Bảo Đại died in a military hospital in Paris, France, in 1997. He was interred in the Cimetière de Passy. After his death, his eldest son, Crown Prince Bảo Long, inherited the position of head of the Nguyễn Dynasty.

Portrayal on film[link]

Emperor Bảo Đại was portrayed by actor Huỳnh Anh Tuấn in the 2004 Vietnamese miniseries Ngọn nến Hoàng cung (A Candle in the Imperial Palace).

Bảo Đại coins[link]

The last cash coin ever produced in the world bears the name of Bảo Đại in Chinese characters.　There are three types of this coin. Large cast piece with 10 van inscription on the reverse, medium cast piece with no reverse inscription, and small struck piece. All were issued in 1933.

• 

  Bao Dai Thong Bao 10van Paul the Great reign (1925-1945)

• Bao Dai reign Xiaoping Qian.gif

  Bao Dai Thong Bao plain reverse

• 

  struck Bao Dai Thong Bao

Quotes[link]

• In 1945 when the Japanese colonel in charge of the Hue garrison told Bảo Đại that he had (in line with the orders of the Allied commander) taken measures ensuring the security of the Imperial Palace and those within it against a possible Việt Minh coup, Bảo Đại dismissed the protection declaring "I do not wish a foreign army to spill the blood of my people."^[2]
• He explained his abdication in 1945 saying "I would prefer to be a citizen of an independent country rather than Emperor of an enslaved one."^[2]
• When, after World War II, France attempted to counter Hồ Chí Minh's popularity and gain the support of the U.S. by creating a puppet government with him, he said "What they call a Bảo Đại solution turns out to be just a French solution."^[3]
• In a rare public statement from France in 1972, Bảo Đại appealed to the people of Vietnam for national reconciliation, saying "The time has come to put an end to the fratricidal war and to recover at last peace and accord."^[4]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Bảo Đại's memoirs have been published in French and in Vietnamese; the Vietnamese version appears considerably longer.

• Bảo Đại, Le dragon d'Annam. Paris: Plon, 1980. 381 pp.
  Bảo Đại, Con rong Viet Nam: hoi ky chanh tri 1913-1987. Los Alamitos, CA: Nguyen Phuoc Toc (distributed by Xuan Thu Publishing), 1990. 610 pp.

• Bruce McFarland Lockhart, The End of the Vietnamese Monarchy. Lac Viet Series, #15. New Haven: Yale Center for International and Area Studies, 1993. 242 pp.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Emperor Bảo Đại

• Abdication of Emperor Bảo Đại
• Emperor Bảo Đại and Princess Vĩnh Thụy visit Thiên-Lý Bửu-Tòa's Cao Đài temple, 2 December 1982, San Martin, California
• On 20 May 2006, a ceremony at the inauguration of the monument raised in memory of Emperor Bảo Đại
• Emperor Bảo Đại and Princess Vĩnh Thụy meet supporters in France (in French)
• Emperor Bảo Đại's Rolex watch sells for record price at Geneva auction in USA Today
• [1]
• Biography and photos throughout Emperor Bảo Đại's life
• Emperor Bảo Đại MERCEDES 600 SEDAN LIMOUSINE

Photos of Bảo Đại's summer palaces[link]

• Dalat
• http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Bluffs/7645/kinghse.jpg&date=2009-10-25+10:33:57
• http://image.pegs.com/images/VS/1744/1744_b1.jpg

v t e Pretenders to the Vietnamese throne since 1945 Emperor Bao Dai (1945 - 1997) Crown Prince Bao Long (1997 - 2007) Prince Bao Thang (2007 - )

v t e Post-World War II Heads of state of Vietnam North Vietnam (1945 – 1976) Ho Chi Minh Ton Duc Thang South Vietnam (1946 – 1976) Republic of Cochinchina (1946 – 48) Nguyen Van Thinh Nguyen Van Xuan Le Van Hoach Nguyen Van Xuan Central Government (1948 – 49) Nguyen Van Xuan State of Vietnam (1949–55) Bao Dai Ngo Dinh Diem1 Republic of Vietnam (1955 – 75) Presidents Ngo Dinh Diem Duong Van Minh2 Nguyen Khanh2 Duong Van Minh2 Nguyen Khanh2 Duong Van Minh2 Phan Khac Suu2 Nguyen Van Thieu2 Tran Van Huong1, 2 Duong Van Minh1, 2 PRG (1975 – 76) Huynh Tan Phat Vietnam (1976 – ) Ton Duc Thang Nguyen Huu Tho1 Truong Chinh Vo Chi Cong Le Duc Anh Tran Duc Luong Nguyen Minh Triet Truong Tan Sang 1acting 2military

v t e Prime Ministers of Vietnam Empire of Vietnam (1945 – 1945) Empire of Vietnam Tran Trong Kim Republic of Cochinchina (1946 – 1948) Nguyen Van Thinh Le Van Hoach Nguyen Van Xuan State of Vietnam (1949 – 1955) Bao Dai Nguyen Phan Long Tran Van Huu Nguyen Van Tam Nguyen Phuc Buu Loc Phan Huy Quat Ngo Dinh Diem Republic of Vietnam (1955 – 1975) Nguyen Ngoc Tho2 Nguyen Khanh2 Nguyen Xuan Oanh1, 2 Nguyen Khanh2 Tran Van Huong2 Nguyen Xuan Oanh1, 2 Phan Huy Quat2 Nguyen Cao Ky2 Nguyen Van Loc Tran Van Huong Tran Thien Khiem Nguyen Ba Can Vu Van Mau Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1945 – 1976) Ho Chi Minh Pham Van Dong Republic of South Vietnam (1960 – 1976) Huynh Tan Phat Socialist Republic of Vietnam (1976 – ) Pham Van Dong Pham Hung Vo Van Kiet1 Do Muoi Vo Van Kiet Phan Van Khai Nguyen Tan Dung 1acting 2head of a military government

Nguyễn Xuân Vinh (b. January 1930 in Yên Bái, Vietnam) is a noted Vietnamese-American aerospace scientist and educator. Vinh is Professor Emeritus of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan, where he taught for nearly thirty years. His seminal work on the guidance, dynamics and optimal control of space vehicles and their interaction with the atmosphere has played a fundamental role in space exploration and technological development.

Military service[link]

Nguyễn Xuân Vinh atttended the French Air Force Academy at Salon de Provence where he specialised in Aeronautical Engineering. In 1954, he graduated from the nearby University of Marseilles in Mathematics and was commissioned as an officer. The following year, he qualified as a French Air Force multi-engine pilot.

Following his return to Vietnam, Vinh was appointed Chief of Staff in the South Vietnamese Air Force in October 1957. In 1958, Vinh became the Commander and first Air Marshal of the Vietnam Air Force at the age of 28. He served as Air Force Commander until 1962 when he resigned and emigrated to the United States.

Education[link]

In 1965, Vinh was the recipient of the first Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences conferred by the University of Colorado. In 1972, he was awarded a national doctorate in Mathematics by the University of Paris, France. He joined the University of Michigan in 1968 as an associate professor of Aerospace Engineering and was promoted to the rank of professor in 1972. During his tenure at Michigan, Vinh chaired more than 20 doctoral committees. It is estimated that over 1,000 aerospace engineers studied under him. It has been rumored that Vinh is related to Tung Nguyen, the Vietnamese rapper from southern Florida.

In 1994, he was given the Mechanics and Control of Flight Award by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

As a scientist and educator, he has published three books and more than 100 papers in mathematics, astrodynamics and trajectory optimization. He is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics and a foreign member of the French National Academy of Air and Space.

Author[link]

In 1960, to promote a cadet recruitment program for the newly created Air Force Academy in Vietnam, he wrote a novel: Pilot’s Life, which became a best-seller (now in its sixth printing) and he was awarded the Republic of Vietnam’s National Literature Prize. The novel is in the form of a series of letters written by a pilot to his sweetheart.[1]

Awards[link]

In 2006, he won the Dirk Brouwer Award, awarded by the American Astronautical Society, for outstanding lifetime achievement in the field of space flight mechanics and astrodynamics. [2]

References[link]

• Hypersonic and Planetary Entry Flight Mechanics. 1980. Vinh, N. X.; Busemann, A.; Culp, R. D. University of Michigan Press.
• Optimal Trajectories in Atmospheric Flight 1981. Vinh N. X. , Studies in Astronautics 2, Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam.
• Flight Mechanics of High-Performance Aircraft. 1993. Nguyen X. Vinh. Cambridge Aerospace Series. ISBN 0-521-34123-X

External links[link]

• 2006 AMERICAN ASTRONAUTICAL SOCIETY AWARD Nguyen Xuan Vinh, aerospace scientist and military man
• XUAN VINH NGUYEN
• The first Vietnamese to receive the Dirk Brouwer Award

Trần Lệ Xuân
First Lady of South Vietnam
In office 26 October 1955 – 2 November 1963
President	Ngô Đình Diệm
Succeeded by	Madame Khánh
Personal details
Born	(1924-08-22)22 August 1924 Hanoi, French Indochina
Died	24 April 2011(2011-04-24) (aged 86)[1] Rome, Italy
Spouse(s)	Ngô Đình Nhu (m. 1943–1963; his death)
Relations	Trần Văn Chương (father) Thân Thị Nam Trân (mother) Ngô Đình Diệm (brother-in-law) Trần Văn Khiêm (brother)
Children	Ngô Đình Trác Ngô Đình Quynh Ngô Đình Le Thuy (died 1967) Ngô Đình Lệ Quyên (died 2012)
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Trần Lệ Xuân (22 August 1924^[2] – 24 April 2011), popularly known as Madame Nhu, was the de facto First Lady of South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963. She was the wife of Ngô Đình Nhu who was the brother and chief adviser to President Ngô Đình Diệm. As Diệm was a lifelong bachelor, and because she and her family lived in the president's palace, she was considered to be the first lady. Historian A. J. Langguth wrote that Madame Nhu had "delicate features, a flirtatious manner and a tiny but voluptuous figure".^[3]

Early years[link]

Trần Lệ Xuân was born into a wealthy aristocratic family in Hanoi, French Indochina, then part of the French colonial empire. Her given name means "Beautiful Spring".^[4][5] Her paternal grandfather was close to the French colonial administration, while her father, Trần Văn Chương, studied law in France,^[6] before marrying into the ruling imperial dynasty. Her mother, Thân Thị Nam Trân, was a granddaughter of Emperor Đồng Khánh and a cousin of Emperor Bảo Đại.^[7]

She dropped out of Lycée Albert Sarraut, a prestigious French school in Hanoi. She spoke French at home and could not write in Vietnamese; as an adult, she drafted her speeches in French and had them translated into Vietnamese.^[6] She gained a reputation in her youth as a tomboy who loved ballet and piano, once dancing solo at Hanoi's National Theatre.^[8] She had an elder sister named Trần Lệ Chi (married French man named Etienne Oggeri and changed her name to Lechi Oggeri) and a younger brother, Trần Văn Khiêm.^[9][1]

When she became an adult, her mother introduced her to a series of eligible young men, but she insisted on Nhu. He was fourteen years older and referred to her as "little niece" in accordance with Vietnamese custom.^[10] In 1943, aged 18,^[11] she married Nhu, and converted from Mahayana Buddhism to Roman Catholicism, her husband's religion. After an uprising by the Viet Minh in August 1945, her brother-in-law, Ngô Ðình Khôi, the eldest of the Ngô brothers, was buried alive,^{[citation needed]} and Nhu and another brother, Ngô Đình Cẩn, were forced to flee.^[where?]

She, her mother-in-law and her eldest daughter, at the time a baby, were captured. Thinking her piano was a radio for communicating with French colonialists, the Viet Minh blew it up and then exiled her to a remote village for four months, where she lived on two bowls of rice a day.^[8] The French dismissed Nhu from his post at the National Library due to his brother (Diệm)'s nationalist activities, and he moved to Đà Lạt and lived comfortably, editing a newspaper, where his wife bore three more children.^[6]

Rise to power[link]

Madame Nhu's brother-in-law, Diệm, had been appointed Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam by her mother's distant cousin, Emperor Bảo Đại, after the French had been defeated at the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ. At the start of 1955, French Indochina was dissolved, leaving Diệm in temporary control of the south.^[12]

A referendum was scheduled for 23 October 1955, to determine the future direction of the south. It was contested by Bảo Đại, the Emperor, advocating the restoration of the monarchy, while Diệm ran on a republican platform. The elections were held and Diệm won 98.2% of the votes. As a result, Diem eliminated the Emperor Bao Dai and became the first president of the South Vietnam. ^[13][14]

Post-elections[link]

After the election, the couple moved into the Presidential Palace. Madame Nhu was influential on government policy and, since her brother-in-law, Ngô Đình Diệm, was unmarried, she was regarded as the First Lady of South Vietnam. ^[6] Since then the CIA begin to play as key roll in propaganda and using Vietnamese Armed Forces Council 1963 to murdered Diem and his brother i.e. Ngo dinh Nhu.

In 1962, she had a statue erected in Saigon to the memory of the Trưng Sisters, with the facial features modelled on herself, and also established the Women's Solidarity Movement, a female paramilitary organization.^[15] The statue cost US$20,000, a substantial sum at the time, given that South Vietnam was a developing country, but she was undeterred by criticism about largesse.^[16] She pressured the wives of ARVN officers and public servants into joining her "movement".^[16]

Her father became the ambassador to the United States while her mother was South Vietnam's observer at the United Nations. Two of her uncles were cabinet ministers.^[17] Her parents resigned their posts in 1963, in protest over the treatment of Buddhists under the regime of President Diệm and disowned their daughter.^[18]

As shown in a following paragraph being used to defame Madam Nhu: "Madame Nhu was chauffeured in a black Mercedes and wore a small diamond crucifix.^[11] She wore form- fitting apparel so tight that one French correspondent suggestively described her as, "molded into her ... dress like a dagger in its sheath." On formal occasions, she wore red satin pantaloons with three vertical pleats, which was the mark of the highest-ranking women of the imperial court in ancient Annam." ^[19]

Advocacy[link]

During her brother-in-law's presidency, Madame Nhu pushed for the passing of "morality laws" outlawing abortion, adultery, divorce, contraceptives, dance halls, beauty pageants, boxing matches, and animal fighting, and closed down the brothels and opium dens. She was widely mocked by the public who regarded her as a hypocrite^[6], with older Vietnamese believing her décolleté gowns to be sexually suggestive, in addition to widespread rumors of her own infidelity. Her family received further scorn as her sister, Trần Lệ Chi, who was married to Nguyển Hữu Châu had a French lover named Etienne Oggeri, and critics alleged that Madame Nhu introduced the laws so that her sister's husband could not get a divorce. Since he was extremely wealthy, the Ngô family would have lost highly valuable assets. In addition, her brother, Khiêm, used his government connections to bilk rich entrepreneurs.^[6] Diệm had stated before becoming President, "The history of China bears witness to the grave crises brought on by the empresses and their relatives."

Madame Nhu exerted influence with her fiery attitude, often abusing Diệm and Nhu, who bowed to her angry tirades. Madame Nhu was frequently mocked by the media for her ostentatious flaunting of power, and was sometimes called the "Dragon Lady"^[20], as well as "Lucretia Borgia" and "Queen Bee".^[21] She once stated "Power is wonderful. Total power is totally wonderful."^[22] She once told a group of American congressmen, "I'm not exactly afraid of death. I love power and in the next life I have a chance to be even more powerful than I am."^[23]

She had a message to Diệm's opponents: "We will track down, neutralize and extirpate all these scabby sheep."^[24] French journalist Francois Sully wrote that Madame Nhu was "conceited, and obsessed with a drive for power that far surpasses that of even her husband ... It is no exaggeration to say that Madame Nhu is the most detested personality in South Vietnam."^[25] Sully was promptly expelled from Vietnam by the Ngô family.^[26]

Madame Nhu claimed that she and her husband were responsible for Diệm's triumph over the Bình Xuyên in the Battle for Saigon in 1954.^[26] She claimed it was the family's destiny to save South Vietnam.^[27] Following the collapse of the coup, her influence in the family began to rise.^[28]

As her husband's influence grew, as did her own vicariously, so did American distaste for them. Wesley Fishel, the anti-Communist academic from Michigan State University who had led an advisory group that helped to train Vietnamese public servants and who had lobbied American politicians in the 1950s to support Diệm's bid for power, resigned along with his staff.^[29] Fishel called Madame Nhu "Brilliant, vivacious, bitchy and brutal in her Borgia-like fashion", claiming that she and her husband were evil influences corrupting the regime.^[29]

She often exerted her influence through bouts of shouting. Sometimes when she disagreed with a proposal or decision that had been made inside the palace by some ministers or other senior public servants, she would verbally abuse them and intimidate them into adopting her preferred stance.^[30]

On 27 February 1962, two dissident Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilots, Nguyễn Văn Cử and Phạm Phú Quốc, bombed the Independence Palace, the official residence of the Ngô family, with the aim of assassinating them. One bomb landed in a room where Diệm was reading, but failed to detonate. The family escaped to the cellar unhurt, except for Madame Nhu, who sustained an arm fracture while running for cover.^[31]

Diệm reacted to the bombing by cracking down on political dissidents and further tightening control of the press.^[32] Madame Nhu added, "[y]ou open a window to let in light and air, not bullets. We want freedom, but we don't want to be exploited by it."^[33] In a radio interview in late-1962, she mockingly remarked that American journalists were "intoxicated with communism."^[34]

The following year she instructed her Women's Solidarity Movement to oppose American attempts "to make lackeys of Vietnamese and to seduce Vietnamese women into decadent paths."^[35] As relations became strained, she publicly accused the Americans of having supported the 1960 coup.^[36]

Buddhist crisis[link]

CIA used Buddhist to rise against Diem. Madame Nhu being defamed by CIA as a caused controversy because of her strongly anti-Buddhist, pro-Catholic ideology. When she heard that Diệm was to sign a statement offering compensation to the families of Buddhist protesters shot dead by the police of his brother Ngô Đình Cẩn, she was reported to have thrown a bowl of soup at him. ^[37] Subsequence of events happened during 1960 to 1963 are under CIA setup.

On 8 June 1963, Madame Nhu released a statement through the Women's Solidarity Movement accusing the Buddhists of neutralism, effectively accusing them of being communist collaborators. It then implored "bonzes of good faith" to stop helping the communists, otherwise Vietnamese Buddhism would be seen as a "small anti-nationalist branch of a dubious international association, exploited and controlled by communism and oriented to the sowing of the disorder of neutralism" and calling on Diem to "immediately expel all foreign agitators whether they wear monks' robes or not." She made another attack on the United States, calling on Diệm to "keep vigilance on all others, particularly those inclined to take Viet Nam for [a] satellite of [a] foreign power or organization."^[30][38]

Madame Nhu publicly mocked Thích Quảng Đức, who performed a self-immolation on 11 June 1963, in a crowded Saigon street to protest against the shooting of Buddhists by Diệm's regime. Nhu labelled it a "barbecue" and stated, "Let them burn and we shall clap our hands."^[37] She further offered to provide more fuel and matches for the Buddhists. Historian Howard Jones said that these comments "all but put the finishing touch on the Diệm regime".

Her own father went on radio to condemn her comments.^[21] A Confucian, Chương said that the regime had alienated "the strongest moral forces", implying that they had lost the mandate of heaven. She responded by calling him a "coward". Her mother said that "There is an old proverb in my country which means 'one should not make oneself or one's family naked before the world'... I was sick... Now, nobody can stop her ... She never listened to our advice."^[11] After these comments, the U.S. ambassador, Frederick Nolting, told Diệm that if he did not denounce his sister-in-law's comment in public, the Americans would have to stop supporting him, but he refused to do so, and assailed the monks. ^[39]

In July, the US government rejected a request from her to travel to the United States for a public speaking tour, fearing a public relations disaster.^[40] On 3 August, she called the Buddhists "seditious elements who use the most odious Communist tactics to subvert the country."^[41]

This occurred after special forces loyal to the Ngôs raided the Xá Lợi pagoda in Saigon in August. The pagoda was vandalized, monks beaten, the cremated remains of Thích Quảng Đức, which included a heart which had not disintegrated, were confiscated. Simultaneous raids were carried out across the country, with the Từ Đàm pagoda in Huế being looted, the statue of Gautama Buddha demolished, and the body of a deceased monk stolen. When the populace came to the defense of the monks, the resulting clashes saw 30 civilians killed and 200 wounded.^[42] Through her paramilitary organization, Madame Nhu claimed that the Buddhists were "controlled by communism" and that they were manipulated by the Americans, calling on Diệm to "expel all foreign agitators whether they wear monks' robes or not". ^[43] A few days after the raids, Madame Nhu described the deadly attacks on the Buddhists as "the happiest day in my life since we crushed the Bình Xuyên in 1955", and assailed them as "communists."^[44]

Her comments further stoked open infighting with her parents, who would eventually disown her and seek refuge in the United States. Her father, Trần Văn Chương, the ambassador to the United States, resigned in protest,^[45][46] along with all but one of the staffers at the embassy.^[47] Chương charged Diệm with having "copied the tactics of totalitarian regimes".^[45] His wife, who was South Vietnam's observer at the United Nations, resigned and spoke of mass executions and a reign of terror under Diệm and Nhu. She predicted that if Diệm and Nhu and Madame Nhu did not leave Vietnam then they would inevitably be killed.^[48] Madame Nhu claimed Buddhist leader Thích Trí Quang "spoke for many intellectuals who had repeatedly ridiculed her."^[49]

Following the pagoda raids, Trí Quang was given asylum at the U.S. Embassy after Ngô Đình Nhu's plans to assassinate him were uncovered. Madame Nhu gave a media interview in which she called on government troops to invade the American embassy and capture Thích Trí Quang and some other monks who were staying there, saying that the government must arrest "all key Buddhists".^[49] In a media interview, her husband responded to his parents-in-law by vowing to kill his father-in-law, claiming his wife would participate. He said "I will have his head cut off. I will hang him in the center of a square and let him dangle there. My wife will make the knot on the rope because she is proud of being a Vietnamese and she is a good patriot." ^[50]

When Acting U.S. ambassador William Trueheart warned that development aid might be withheld if the repression orchestrated by the Ngôs continued, Madame Nhu denounced it as "blackmail". Nhu and Diệm, fearing a cut in aid, sent Madame Nhu to the United States on a speaking tour. She departed South Vietnam on 9 September in an expedition that brought widespread international scorn to her family's regime.^[51] She had predicted "a triumphant lecture tour".^[52] She left on 17 September for the Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting in Yugoslavia, followed by a trip to Italy and possibly to the United States, where she had an invitation to speak before the Overseas Press Club of New York.

Madame Nhu's comments were such that President John F. Kennedy became personally concerned. He asked his advisors to find means of having Diệm gag her. McGeorge Bundy thought her comments were so damaging that it would only be acceptable for Ngô Đình Diệm to remain in power if she were out of the picture. The National Security Council deemed her a threat to U.S. security, and told the then United States Ambassador to South Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. to seek her permanent removal from South Vietnam.^[52]

There was also speculation that she could turn up at the United Nations in New York and embarrass South Vietnam and the U.S.^[53] Bundy said in a meeting that "this was the first time the world had been faced with collective madness in a ruling family since the days of the czars" and her comments provoked much debate on how to get Diệm to silence her.^[54]

In Madame Nhu's first destination, Belgrade, she said that "President Kennedy, is a politician, and when he hears a loud opinion speaking in a certain way, he tries to appease it somehow", referring to the opposition to her family's rule.^[54]

The issue resulted in an awkward confrontation when U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Maxwell Taylor, traveled to Vietnam for a fact-finding mission about the progress of the war.

In a meeting with Diệm, McNamara bemoaned "the ill-advised and unfortunate declarations of Madame Nhu",^[55] who had described U.S. military advisors as "acting like little soldiers of fortune".^[55] McNamara said that such comments would damage bilateral military cooperation and deter American officers from helping the South Vietnamese forces.^[55] Lodge denounced the comments and said, "These men should be thanked, not insulted."^[56] However, one of his aides lost his composure and asked if "there were not something the government could do to shut her up."^[55] Diệm was stunned by the comments and retorted that "one cannot deny a lady the right to defend herself when she has been unjustly attacked", saying his sister-in-law was entitled to freedom of speech.^[55] Madame Nhu arrived in the United States on 7 October, and her arrival was greeted by the United Nations' launching of an inquiry into the repression of Buddhists in South Vietnam.^[57] Kennedy had resisted the temptation to deny her an entry visa and his administration soon came under a flurry of verbal attacks.^[57]

Despite the United States Vice President Lyndon Johnson's advice for her to stop damaging relations with inflammatory remarks, Madame Nhu refused to back down, describing herself a "scapegoat" for American shortcomings and failures. She went on to accuse the administration of betraying her family, saying "I refuse to play the role of an accomplice in an awful murder ... According to a few immature American junior officials—too imbued by a real but obsolete imperialist spirit, the Vietnamese regime is not puppet enough and must be liquidated."^[57] She accused the Americans of undermining South Vietnam through "briberies, threats and other means" to destroy her family because they "do not like" it.^[57] She further mocked Kennedy's entourage, asking why "all the people around President Kennedy are pink?"

She denounced American liberals as "worse than communists"^[58] and Buddhists as "hooligans in robes".^[59] Her father did not share the same beliefs and followed her around the country rebutting her comments,^[57] denouncing the "injustice and oppression" and stating that his daughter had "become unwittingly the greatest asset to the communists." She predicted that Buddhism would become extinct in Vietnam.^[60]

In the wake of the tumultuous events, Madame Nhu appeared on NBC-TV's Meet the Press on 13 October 1963, defending her actions and those of the South Vietnamese government. "I don't know why you Americans dislike us ... Is it because the world is under a spell called liberalism? Your own public, here in America, is not as anti-Communistic as ours is in Vietnam. Americans talk about my husband and I leaving our native land permanently. Why should we do this? Where would we go? To say that 70 percent of my country's population is Buddhistic is absolutely true. My father, who was our ambassador to the United States until two months ago, has been against me since my childhood."

Downfall[link]

On 2 November 1963, Diệm and Nhu, were assassinated in a coup d'état led by General Dương Văn Minh(Armed Forces Council) with the understanding that the United States would not intervene. At the time of the assassinations, Madame Nhu was in Beverly Hills, California, traveling with her 18-year-old daughter, Ngô Đình Lệ Thủy.^[61] Her other children were in Vietnam at the family retreat in Đà Lạt and she feared that they would meet the same fate as their father.^[62] The children were not harmed by the generals and were flown out of the country into exile in Rome, where they were placed in the custody of their uncle, Archbishop Thục. Madame Nhu later flew to Rome to join them.^[63]